


Thoughtful

by Missy



Category: Laverne & Shirley (TV)
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Cake, Birthday Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Mild Angst, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22970224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Laverne turns thirty, and her perspective changes
Relationships: Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Thoughtful

Laverne is thirty.

The big 3-0. Officially not a kid anymore. An adult.

Which means – with Carmine and Edna gone and Shirley all the way overseas and her pop a Councilman and Rhonda being painfully self absorbed at the moment – she has to have a grown-up birthday. 

Oh, Shirley calls – and they spend half the morning laughing on the phone – and Carmine gives her a quicker, somewhat more obligatory message. Her pop hugs her and gives her a special lunch with a birthday cupcake and a pretty woolen sweater from his trip to Ireland. But there’s no big surprise party, no big cake. Nothing at all for Laverne except a normal, boring working day.

She is becoming an adult. She kind of hates it.

Afterwards she doesn't have anyone to hang out with – she's avoiding her beach group after the disaster on the aircraft carrier, and she isn’t close to anyone but Chuck, who was off at a Star Trek convention all week. Laverne finds herself sitting in front of her TV, drowning her sorrows in milk and Pepsi and Scooter Pies, just like she had ten years before, a pathetic realization. She has to be the most miserable person on the planet at the moment.

As if on cue, the front door flies open, but there is no “hello” to cap off her self recrimination.

“It’s just me, Laverne,” Lenny says from the doorway. He’s carrying a bakery box at his side, and slides into her darkened apartment, looking around as he heads into the kitchen. “Where is everyone?”

“Rhonda had a date,” she says, sitting up, pulling her robe closer to her chest. Lenny hasn’t made a comment about her attire, and part of her’s disappointed he didn’t employ a hand bite. Her ego could use the lift. “Pop’s working late and Chuck’s at a convention.” She looks behind him, surprised not to see Squiggy leading the way. “Where’s Squig?”

“He sends his regards, but Monica needed him to shampoo her rug.” Lenny tilts his head and shrugs, opening the box and digging around in her kitchen drawer. “I don’t know for sure, but I think he was using an embolism.” 

“Yeah, Probably.” She hears the sound of a match scratching against the back of a box before Lenny’s face is haloed by soft candlelight. 

Carrying the box back into the living room, he sings her "Happy Birthday" in the loudest, most obnoxious tone possible. In spite of herself, Laverne is grinning when he puts the cake down.

“Aww. You boys didn’t have to go to all this trouble.” She’d presumed the gift was from Lenny and Squiggy alike.

“Nah, this is my idea. I just wanted to make you happy.” He sets down two paper plates and shrugs at her stunned look. “It’s chocolate inside – your favorite!”

Lenny’s words make the universe lurch into focus. There he is, getting her effortlessly – knowing what it took to cheer her up. There he is, being thoughtful and unselfish and putting her first. For the first time she feels like she's seeing him for himself.

“Oh, Laverne - don’t forget to make a wish,” he says, his eyes meeting her over the candles. Then he closes his own eyes.

Laverne does so with a smile, blowing them all out in one quick breath.

He gives her one of his awkward, sideways smiles and reaches for a paper plate. The smoke from the candles rise up and wreath his face, highlighting the innocent look in his blue eyes. “Whatt’d you wish for, Laverne?”

She leans over the mounds of icing and candle wax to reach him. The kiss that follows tells him everything he needs to know.


End file.
